Authors Note: Hey everyone! Told you I'd be back thanks to everyone for all the reviews!
Dragon Man 180: oh yes, Naruto will be worked harder than ever before. And I'm sure Tao's happy she's not going into Jiraiya's head again any time soon
HieiJaganshi11: Thanks here's an update :)
Saico: Yes that's very true… but do remember that Tao is a demon fox and is certainly capable of many things.
First I'm going to say sorry to all 'cause there's going to be a bit of talking in this chapter to explain some stuff. I'm not going to explain everything because I don't like giving out the entire story line/saying what's going to happen or is currently happening, so sorry but yeah…
And without further a due and without further distractions, I give you ch.11!
Tao sat with Kakashi in spirit form above the building in which he said the leader of the village, the Hokage, had his office.
"Are you sure they will all come?" Kakashi asked Tao again, still not sure how this was all working or if it was working for that matter. Tao nodded.
"The dreams I gave them were all very pressing, and I'm sure they had a hard time telling if they were really awake or not."
"That real huh?" Tao nodded again. He wasn't sure why he doubted her, already two of the people he had requested her to send dreams to had already come in to see the Hokage and he could see others on the way. Before long they were all in the room with the Hokage with one seated on top of the roof listening in on everything that was going on.
"Hey that's that one lost guy." Tao said pointing to the man as he seated himself on the roof pulling a pipe from his pocket.
"Lost?" Kakashi asked looking confused.
"Well he was a guy and he was outside the women's bathing areas," Kakashi blushed quite sure he didn't want to explain to her that the man wasn't lost but right where he wanted to be. "Plus the only thing he had on his mind was all these girls taking baths."
"Taking baths?"
"Well I guess so… they weren't wearing anything so they must've been taking a bath right?" Having no idea how to respond to that or how to explain to a female demon fox that obviously grew up without any perverted brothers or anything tried to change the subject.
"What were you doing in his mind anyway?"
"I had to root the dream to his mind, so I had to find something to tie it to." When Kakashi just gave her a blank look Tao tried to explain further.
"I can plant the dream but the person has to dream it, I attach it to a memory that leads to the dream and activates it. I had to look way into his past to find the right thing to anchor it to." Not wanting to get anymore confused Kakashi decided it was time to move onto the matter at hand. Tao had to somehow drag everyone there to the dream world at once. If she did it separately the others would notice and get suspicious and it would be harder to compel them to sleep. When Kakashi asked if Tao could take Charka the same way she could transfer it to others; she had said she had never tried it but could probably get it to work. In that case they needed the biggest boost of charka they could get and since the Hokage was out of the question that left the one Kakashi called Jiraiya.
"Just call to him sweetly and he'll be asleep in an instant." Kakashi offered as Tao tried to pull his spirit into the dream world.
"What do you mean?" Tao asked looking at him confused. Kakashi tried to explain and Tao tried to do as instructed. Sure enough a smile spread across the mans face and he slumped forward. Tao quickly took his spirit along with Kakashi's back to the dream world.
Jiraiya looked around the planes of the dream world confused. However once he spotted Tao he smiled widely but before he could move towards her Kakashi quickly placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Hold up, this isn't your ordinary dream."
"Well I'd disagree, there are always beautiful women in my dreams; but the fact that you are here might suggest a lapse in my writing." It took some small effort but the two of them managed to quickly convince Jiraiya that they were not apart of his dream or something dreamt up but separate, solid outside of the dream world. That done Tao led them back to the room in which everyone stood debating over what they believed to be premonitions while the Hokage simply sat and listened patiently while each of them said their part then agued over it with the one standing next to them waiting for the moment to interject. Kakashi stood back while Jiraiya placed his hands on Tao's shoulders, Tao had rejected Kakashi's offer of his own charka saying he needed it. Carefully Tao gathered her own small pool of charka then tried reaching for Jiraiya's. At first it seemed like nothing was happening then she felt a great flood of energy from him pouring into her. Quickly she wove it around everyone in the room binding them tight. One person stuttered while another yawned, the Hokage slumped slightly in his chair; swiftly but carefully, making sure not to leave anyone of them behind Tao pulled with everything she had and all that Jiraiya had lent to her.
Once the group looked around the dream world for a moment, confused, they immediately began arguing and debating anew on what was going on. The Hokage remained silent and looked around and raised an eyebrow when he saw Kakashi and Jiraiya walking up to him as casually as if they had just bumped into each other on the street. The two quickly explained to him what was going on and introduced him to Tao who seemed a little shy about meeting the grand leader of the village. The Hokage smiled at her in greeting before turning to the others who seemed ready to try and break out of wherever it was they had been placed.
"That is enough, all of you." He said in a firm voice that settled the crowd. "Now then, if you could all be quiet for a moment…" he said giving them a questioning look before turning to talk to Kakashi and Tao. Kakashi quickly briefed him on the situation he and Sasuke were in and confirmed Tao's side of the story about someone capturing or 'recruiting' certain members from villages. The hokage stayed quiet all the while listening to the two of them only speaking up on one or two points to ask Tao to clarify something she had briefed over a little too hazily. "Now then, while I do understand what it is you are both telling me… what is stopping me from believing this isn't some kind of mind trick?" He asked looking at Tao seriously but not foreboding as to scare her. "You say you planted the dreams in our minds, how can I believe you didn't plant this as well."
"The dreams I gave you were all true possibilities of the future, I cannot create things that are false." Jiraiya looked at her surprised and looked to Kakashi for conformation, Tao just looked at the hokage almost pleadingly in hopes that he would believe her.
"I'm not sure about the dreams but everyone here does seem solid, real." Glancing over the hokage's shoulder to see who had spoken and nearly ducked behind the hokage to hide from him. It was Hyuuga Hiashi, Hinata's father. The last thing Tao felt like doing at that point in time was to try and explain to the man how she had managed to lead his daughter away from him willingly without him noticing. She simply stayed where she was and hoped he didn't recognize her. The hokage, Jiraiya, and Kakashi all explained to everyone what was going on.
"So you have no idea what the motives are behind these people." Asked a woman with a large red triangle on ether side of her face, unruly brown hair and wild eyes.
"No, not wholly; Tao suggested the possibility that these people want to turn all the villages against one another."
"If they succeeded it would cause a full scale war throughout the country… what would they gain from this?" Gai wondered aloud.
"It would make it very easy for them to move into any village and take over." Said a man in a thick trench coat and strange goggle-like glasses. "All they would have to do is wait till a village was too weak to hold out any longer and move in."
"And with everyone fighting each other no one would notice till it's too late." The hokage finished and everyone began talking all at once again. Tao listened as they all debated on the best course of action. One man kept saying the whole thing was troublesome and that they shouldn't try anything until they had all the pieces on the board. Gai and Kakashi were debating over the best course of action while the woman with the wild hair was having what seemed to be a really loud debate with the man with the sunglass-goggles. Hiashi continued to stand by the hokage looking at Tao out of the corner of his eye while the hokage seemed to be taking in and listening to all the ideas that were being thrown around while formulating his own idea.
"You're the one who came to my house to request Hinata's help aren't you?" Hiashi asked looking at Tao. He spoke calmly and simply yet there seemed to be a cold fierceness to his gaze that caused Tao to shiver slightly as she gave a small nod.
"Yes sir, I am." The man looked her over for a brief moment before continuing.
"You have dragged my daughter into certain danger and possible death have you not?"
"No I haven't." she said looking him in the eye. "I have an ability of foresight… the safest place for Hinata to be was with me and the others."
"Can you show me this foresight of yours?" When Tao paused for a moment not fully understanding his question he asked again. "Can you show me what would have happened if Hinata had stayed home?" Tao nodded immediately.
"Of course, the past is always easier to handle that the future." Before he could ask what she meant she placed a fingertip on his forehead and everything around him blurred then stabilized a few moments later.
---
Looking around Hiashi saw he was in his main study back at home.
"The day will keep replaying showing you as many possible outcomes as you like, whenever you're done just say 'end vision' and I'll pull you out of it ok?" Hiashi nodded and looked up at the clock. It was about an hour before the girl came to ask for his daughter… did that mean he only had an hour to change what was going to happen? Hiashi though for a moment then went to Hinata's room and knocked on the door. Hinata opened it and tried to hide behind the door when she saw it was her father.
"Hinata, I want you to walk with me." It wasn't a suggestion and Hinata knew it. She quickly put on her sandals and followed her father out the door.
Hiashi walked down the streets of Konoha, his daughter following beside him eyes downcast.
"F…father? Have I done something…?" Hinata asked shyly, afraid she had done something wrong.
"No." Her father replied shortly causing Hinata to flinch but he didn't notice, he was too busy keeping an eye on everything around them calculating every possibility. No enemy would be foolish enough to attack them or try to kidnap his daughter while they were walking through the village. If there really was a threat, it would sit and wait for the opportune moment. But Hiashi planned to find them before they got the chance to find one, Hyuga is the strongest in the leaf he thought to himself firmly.
---
After removing her hand from Hiashi's forehead she had to explain to the Hokage what she had just done and how she was unable to see into the future to see what Kakashi's captors had planned or even who they were.
"I suppose the best way I can put it is, the future isn't set, nothing is certain. By knowing what's going to happen then doing something else, the future changes. When looking into the future, every single possibility is shown before me and I have to choose one and see where that goes."
"But there are many things that attribute to the future; you have to sort through all those things then to get one possibility out of perhaps thousands correct?" Tao nodded.
"That is why it is so hard, also the ability requires charka, something I do not have a lot of. What I used to get everyone here was lent to me from Jiraiya." The hokage nodded.
"Is it possible for you to look for people in specific?"
"In specific?" Tao asked not sure she understood what he meant.
"In the dream you gave me, there was someone I believe I saw there but since he was not my opponent I did not have time to see if it was him."
"You want me to see if this person is connected to the future I saw?" the hokage nodded. "Alright, just picture the face of the person you want me to find." He gave a nod and Tao placed a finger to his forehead. The image was of a man the hokage hadn't seen in awhile, that was alright, by following his past she'd have a better chance of finding him in the future.
"I still don't see why we can't just alert the other villages and tell them what's happening…"
"It's not as simple as that, is there any reason for them not to expect us? Besides the only village we have a peace treaty with at the moment is the sand and I doubt they'd believe us-"
"With our youth and determination we will be triumphant!"
"I take it then the dream you got wasn't all that terrible then." Asuma asked giving Gai a questioning look.
"Of course I was! That's why…" he looked down his fists clenched, his face serious. "That's why we've got to stop this from happening. It might be foolish to trust this girl so wholeheartedly; however, if what I saw is really going to happen then… I think we should be grateful that we are being given a chance to change the future." The others nodded.
"Is this girl really as trustworthy as the two of you claim?" Kakashi nodded.
"In the short time that we have I am afraid I am unable to explain the whole situation to you but let me say this much; if you cannot trust her then trust my trust in her."
"Does she even have a plan?" Gai asked. Kakashi smiled.
"She has a plain. And while I'd like the records to say that I was against this at the first, I do agree with her statement that it is the best possible action." Everyone looked at Kakashi who paused for a moment before continuing. "Tao plans on getting captured by the enemy, since she can project her spirit from her body she will be able to follow them and find where they are located."
"What? What good is getting captured do?"
"Sure we'll know where the enemy is but what next?"
"She and the others will free the captives, an attack from the outside and from within, it will be up to you and the hokage to see how many you can muster to join the fight." No one questioned the need for reinforcements, in the future the village had stood on it's on in the intense battle, and from everyone's point of view they had been loosing.
"Keep in mind this is merely the skeletal base of the plan, we must flesh it out." The others nodded. Before they could start planning the hokage spoke up.
"It seems that we must depart now, Tao needs to return and we have some planning to do. From what Tao, Jiraiya and Hiashi have given me a good idea of what we will be up against." Tao asked everyone to gather close together to make it easier to send everyone back. She carefully placed everyone back in their own body making sure not to misplace anyone. One by one everyone picked themselves up off the floor as they woke up. Everyone murmured to each other while they waited for everyone to wake up. The hokage spoke once everyone was awake and collected.
"Now then, how clear is everyone on the current situation?" as a group they all went over what they had been told till everyone was on the same page.
Just outside the door stood a Chuunin, his back leaned against the wall listening on the conversation. After a moment the man's head slumped forward, he then looked around confused and walked back to his post.
In a tea house not too far off Ino sat up and grinned at her teammates.
"Do I even want to know how troublesome this is going to be?" Shikaimaru asked giving her an irritated look, Choji just kept eating.
"Sakura's gone off on this super cool mission! How could she I deserve to go more than she does." Shikaimaru sighed and just sipped his drink while Ino ranted.
"Are you going somewhere with this?" Shikaimaru asked when she started repeating herself.
"Yes, we're going after them." She said proudly causing Shikaimaru to spit out his tea and Choji to choke.
"Are you insane?" Shikaimaru asked as he patted Choji on the back.
Not too far from the tea house Kiba, and Shino sat hiding behind an inn.
"I don't see why you don't just send Akaimaru to spy on the meeting."
"Arf!"
"That's right Akaimaru, if my mom gets a whiff of Akaimaru we'd be dead where we stand. Look, we need to go find where Hinata's gotten to and your bugs are the best way of finding out."
"And if my dad spots the bugs?"
"You're not that dumb to get caught are you?" Shino said nothing but ran though possible replies in his mind. After a few more moments of waiting with Kiba sharing jokes with Akaimaro Shino's bugs returned.
"Well? What did they say what did they say!" Kiba asked grabbing on to Shino's shoulder looking down at the bugs.
"Give me a moment and I'll ask." Shino said wishing Kiba would be a little more patient, but then again as his teammate Shino knew that Kiba was in no way a patient person. After the bugs told Shino what they had heard he translated to Kiba.
"Ok let's go!" He said standing up triumphantly.
"Go? Where?"
"To save our teammate of course! You know how Hinata is in a fight, as her teammates we have to be there to protect her!" Shino hated it when Kiba had a point.
"May I remind you though that the group Hinata is traveling with is moving and we are not even positive of their current position?"
"Hey, with my nose and your bugs I'm sure we'll do fine."
"Woof woof!"
"You said it Akaimaru lets go!" Shino sighed, one way or another he knew he was going to be dragged into this, he knew better than to argue with Kiba who was always happy to drag him along if need be.
"Perhaps I should send the bugs back to listen in a little longer so we know what we're up against."
"Look, Naruto was selected to go on this mission, how hard could it possibly be?"
---
Tao woke up in her own body once she was done placing everyone back in there own bodies. She had originally intended to check on Naruto before she woke up but she had to place her trust in Kyuubi. He was the fabled nine tailed demon fox after all; there was no demon alive that could rival his powers, and if Naruto could manage to pull off even a small portion of his power they'd be set. Arching her back down and her shoulders up she stretched almost like a cat might before pulling her legs under her to sit.
"Sleep well?" Tao looked at Gaara and smiled.
"Thank you for keeping watch while we slept, I'm sure the others will also appreciate the reprieve."
"You slept soundly while leaving me to watch over you knowing full well what I am, how? Everyone I have ever met has been afraid of me including my own family, what gives you such confidence?" Gaara's tone never changed from its uncaring attitude making it hard to tell what he was thinking.
"I trusted you is all." Gaara smirked.
"You'd place you're trust in a demon?" He asked his tone taking on an edge of mockery.
"No I trusted you." She replied simply as she undid the bandages on her arms to reveal deep cuts up and down both arms. In an attempt to scare her away Gaara had used his sand in an attempt to tear off a limb or two; in the end all she had were nasty cuts on her arm and still no fear.
"Your ramblings make no sense." He said blatantly. Tao just chuckled softly.
"I know, you'd think after all the time I've been around I would at least make some sense when I said something."
"How old are you anyway?" He asked
"I'm the equivalence of 22 years old I believe." Gaara wanted to ask what she meant by 'equivalence' but decided it couldn't be anything important so he resumed his brooding silence. Raising her left arm to eyelevel she began the old habit of washing her wounds gingerly with her tongue. She re-bandaged that arm and did the same to the other arm. Once that was done she looked over at the others who were still sleeping. Her eyes rested on Naruto, she could return to the dream world to see how he was doing but knew Kyuubi wouldn't appreciate the interruption, and she thought it might be best to stay awake with Gaara.
In the dream world Naruto lay on his back chest heaving as he tried to take in more air than possible. Blood or sweat trickled down his back and forehead. At first he thought it wasn't possible to get tired in the dream world, he was asleep after all, but Kyuubi's relentless drilling over… he wasn't sure how many day's it had been since he never rested. Was it possible to go to sleep when you were already to sleep? Naruto groaned as he felt Kyuubi's foot tap his side.
"Get up kit; you've only learnt two of the three techniques I was hoping to teach you before dawn came in the waking world."
"Can't I rest for a moment?" came the panting reply.
"You're already sleeping, what more rest could you possibly have?"
"Damn Kyuubi! That's not what I meant and you know it! I'm tired! I'm hungry and I want ramen!" He whimpered the last part; he really wanted a nice bowl of ramen right then, with all kinds of things added to it.
"There is no need to eat in the dream world."
"Then why do I feel hungry! Damn!" Naruto curled up on his side clutching his stomach, his muscles cried out in pain at the movement which also caused closed wounds to open up again. "If this is just a dream, then why am I so tired, why do I bleed, and why do I feel hungry?" Naruto didn't move or voice an objection when a firm arm wrapped around his waist and picked him up; he simply hung in the grip which held him as if he weighed nothing.
"Because your spirit is tired from training, and you shouldn't feel hungry, just tell yourself you're not hungry, it's a psychological thing."
"A what?" Naruto mumbled. Rather than reply Kyuubi dropped him in the river that ran thought the dream world. Rather than swim to the surface he simply let himself sink to the bottom. Where he lay for a moment in an almost dream like state. As he lay underwater with his eyes closed he saw the rippling light on the waters surface on the insides of his eyelids. The gentle murmur of water sounded in his ears. There was a bright flash which caused Naruto to struggle almost as if he were trying to reach it. He felt his body go numb as the light consumed his vision and seemed to engulf him.
Opening his eyes he saw himself back inside Konoha. I guess this answers the question as to weather or not you can have a dream in a dream. Naruto thought to himself. Looking around he saw people who looked to be frozen in place, in the middle of what looked like one huge fight. There were gigantic snakes above the village and over there a giant frog and… was that a slug? He saw a distance in front of him a man with blue skin wielding a sword that looked like it could rival Zabuza's. He suddenly felt like there was someone directly behind him. Turning he saw Sasuke with a wind blade looking like he was ready to strike Sakura who held a look of pleading in her eyes as frozen tears lined her face. The look on Sasuke's face was almost demonic, a black pattern lined one side of his face and his eyes looked like a serpents. Forgetting that he was in a frozen dream he shoved Sakura out of the way. Almost as if someone had hit the play button on the dream everything roared into motion. He heard the screams of the people dying around him; he somehow knew it was the sound of a loosing battle. He felt the blade slice right through him.
"Dobe, how do you expect to save the people you care for now?" Sasuke sneered as he yanked the blade from Naruto. He fell on his back clutching his side, Sakura's face appeared overhead. She said something to him but her words missed his ears, he simply smiled up at her but that only caused her to cry more. Where's Kyuubi? I… I can't feel him. Sakura's mouth continued to move without sound and tears continued to fall down her face. Don't cry… that's what he wanted to say… he opened his mouth as if to try to speak but his lungs wouldn't supply the air he needed to speak. He felt blood spill over onto his lips and watched as Sakura's face faded from his vision. His heartbeat sounded in his ears, a steadily slowing rhythm. The beat stopped and Naruto felt himself waiting for the next beat that didn't come, feeling something that he was afraid might be death wrap around him he began to lash out. Opening his mouth he ordered his lungs to take in air, instead they took in water.
He thrashed himself to the surface and struggled out of the water as quickly as he could wanting to get away from what he believed to be the cause of what had been a very realistic dream.
"This is what Tao knows, it was what she saw happening before she came to help you." Naruto looked up at Kyuubi his eyes burned with anger and confusion.
"What the hell was that!"
"A possible future, you saw your perspective, Tao showed different perspectives to those in your village in hopes of convincing them of the approaching danger. Though I hope that by now that future is a changed one, do you see now why you have to train?" Naruto nodded, a grim look on his face. The two techniques he had learnt so far were above and beyond him to the degree that anytime he used them he had to be channeling Kyuubi for it to work. But those two attacks he felt were worth the effort, all he had to do was be able to channel as much as Kyuubi as possible while not completely loosing his head.
"Now, let's see how much of my power you can manage, once you are channeling more than you can bare I want you to complete both techniques. First Kuro Ashi no jutsu, then Kagai Tsukai no jutsu." Naruto braced himself as he felt Kyuubi's immense charka flood through him then pour out of him to wrap around him like a second skin or a thick pelt. When he felt the now familiar pain surge through him he brought his hands up in front of him forming the hand seals.
"KURO ASHI NO JUTSU!" the charka poured to his hands forming dark spheres of charka. Turning to a tree he shoved his hands in front of him releasing the charka. The spheres hit the tree with an explosive force that completely cut the tree in two and continued on to hit the tree behind it. Naruto's arm began to twitch from the strain but Kyuubi wasn't going to give him the chance to rest just yet. Walking over to another tree he formed different hand seals.
"Kagai Tsukai no jutsu!" he said with a little less energy. Again his hands went dark with the Kyuubi's charka this time he placed his hands on the tree. Immediately the tree began to wither as Naruto felt the tree's life drain into him. Naruto didn't like the idea of killing something just so he could have more charka, but he wasn't planning to say as much to Kyuubi. Naruto removed his hands once the tree had turned completely ashen with no life left to draw from it.
"You may balk at the idea of this technique at first, but it will come in handy I assure you." Naruto didn't answer, he simply collapsed to the ground where he was his whole body shaking from the strain as Kyuubi's power left him.
"What… I… don't get is… how is this going to be helpful?" he said between gasps of air. "If I'm out of charka, and I need your charka to do it… how is this going to work?" he managed to ask.
"What if you come across someone with more charka than you? No I didn't say more than me, just more than you. You will be able to drain their charka and add it to your own so that they are unable to use any techniques." When he didn't get a reply he gave a soft growl. "You don't have to do it to the point that you kill the person, I just think its better because then you don't have to worry about them coming back." Naruto gave a soft chuckle.
"Hey Kyuubi, how much more time do we have?" He managed to mumble. Kyuubi shut his eyes for a moment as if concentrating.
"Perhaps a day's worth of time if we are lucky."
"So in two day's I've learnt two techniques, I can manage a third."
"Yes but at this rate you will be completely exhausted when you return to the waking world."
"You mean I won't have any charka other than yours?"
"Yes."
"That's fine… I'll just hug a few trees or something after I wake up…" he mumbled a small smile on his face.
Authors note: and with that I present the end of the chapter! Sorry for all the talking and explaining… again please no flames, I'm not asking you to read this story, if you don't like it go find one you do like and read it instead of reading all the way through this one and flaming it, its just a waste of both our times. Although I do have some marshmallows I need to roast to make s'mores… yum. Other than that, please read and review and I'll see if I can start working on the next chapter so I don't leave it as long again. Till next time!